Open Arts Festival Chereshnevy Les presents the exhibition of Giorgio de Chirico in the Tretyakov Gallery

The exhibition "Giorgio de Chirico. Metaphysical insights" was opened in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Krymsky Val on April 19th within the Open Arts Festival Chereshnevy Les at the support of BOSCO DI CILIEGI and the Giorgio and Iza de Chirico Foundation
Mikhail Shvydkoi, Marina Loshak, Igor Butman, Sergey Garmash, Lyudmila Zorina, Igor Yankovsky, Andrei Sharonov, Alena Sviridova, Alika Smekhova, Darya Poverennova, Petr Nalich, Arina Sharapova, Svetlana and Pavel Astakhov, Alena Doletskaya, Nina Gomiashvili, Thomas and Iveta Manasherov, Vladimir Kozhin and Olesya Boslovyak, Sofia Trotsenko, Anton Belov, Dmitry Hankin, Anita Gigovskay, Victor Shkulev, Alexander Mitroshenkov, Anatoly Malkin, Andrei Kolesnikov, Gore Nakhapetyan, Vlad Loktev, Yury Ovchinnikov, Larissa Rubalskaya, Armen Yeritsyan, Kristina Lieva and many others came to get acquainted with the works of the famous Italian painter and sculptor and open the festival Chereshnevy Les.
The global event which is being discussed world-wide - this is the first large-scale retrospective of one of the greatest masters of the avant-garde of the twentieth century, Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) in Russia, who is called "the forerunner of surrealism" and the inventor of "metaphysical painting."
The exhibition, arranged jointly with the Giorgio and Iza de Chirico Foundation, includes over 110 works like paintings, graphics, sculptures, theatrical costumes and shots fr om the collection of the Foundation and the largest world museums like The National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, the Museum of Modern Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART), the Pompidou Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and private collections.
Director of the Tretyakov Gallery Zelphira Tregulova, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Italian Ambassador to Russia Cesare Maria Ragalini, organizer of the Chereshnevy Les Open Arts Festival Mikhail Kusnirovich, president of the Giorgio and Iza de Chirico Foundation Paolo Picozza gave speeches at the opening ceremony.
"The first exhibition of the great Italian artist-metaphysician Giorgio de Chirico in Russia, which we have been preparing for almost two years, opens the XVII Open Arts Festival Chereshnevy Les. This project was called one of the most important for the development of cultural ties between the two states at the meeting of Vladimir Putin and Italian President Sergio Mattarella. The works of de Chirico were shown in Moscow only once before. It was in the Museum of New Western Art in 1929. The painting "Roman Women" was purchased then, which is kindly given to us by the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, wh ere it is kept. It is very interesting for us to present the artist, whose works are almost absent in Russian museum collections, especially in the context of our collection of Russian art of the 20th century," the director of the Tretyakov Gallery Zelphira Tregulova said.
"The Open Arts Festival Chereshnevy Les opens for the 17th time in a row today. We are very proud of our cooperation with the Tretyakov Gallery, and we are especially proud of the cooperation with the new Tretyakov Gallery. Our festival was honored to be opened by this wonderful exhibition, about which you have heard such profound and penetrant speeches already. In this world of inter-penetrations, it is not by chance that the Tretyakov Gallery acquaints us with foreign artists, especially with Italian artists, who help to better understand and comprehend Russian art. We are very pleased that we are involved in the exhibition of such a landmark & world-important artist of the twentieth century, who is related to Russia, and is also in the context of the art of the beginning and the middle of the twentieth century. Giorgio de Chirico, like Rene Magritte, is absolutely unforgettable: it is impossible to forget him after just having a glimpse on his work. He conveys the complex metaphysical state of the soul. In addition, he is an artist of continuous return and search: he repeatedly turned to one and the same subjects throughout his life, comprehending them in a new way. The experiences of his mind and heart were the spirit of that time, they literally hung in the air - and they will sink into my heart & soul today", - the organizer of the Open Arts Festival Chereshnevy Les and the head of the BOSCO DI CILIEGI group of companies Mikhail Kusnirovich said.
The importance of the event was emphasized by Olga Golodets, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Tretyakov Gallery: ” We are not just at the opening of the exhibition. In fact, this is the opening of Giorgio de Chirico to us - Muscovites, Russians, all guests of our city ... We have only two pictures in the territory of the Russian Federation, and the fact that the Tretyakov Gallery managed to attract such remarkable people with its enthusiasm and professionalism and present this exhibition to the Russian audience - is a unique element of our culture”.
Paolo Picozza, president of the Giorgio and Iza de Chirico Foundation, draws parallels with another titan of the painting of 20th-century: "There were two major figures in the art in the twentieth century: Picasso and de Chirico. Picasso presented the real, and de Chirico - the subconscious. Picasso represented severity of the father, de Chirico represented tenderness of the mother. I think, de Chirico would be very glad to this exhibition in case he was alive. And these are not just empty words, because many things connected him with Russia: de Chirico’s grandfather was a diplomat and visited Russia often. The artist himself was on friendly terms with Russian poets, he worked with Diaghilev. In addition, both his wives were Russian."
Ambassador of the Italian Republic to Russia Cesare Maria Ragalini: "It is a great honor for me to be at this exhibition today. This event is of great importance from both the artistic and the symbolic point of view. Moscow hosts the monographic exhibition of Giorgio de Chirico for the first time, and this is an important chapter taking in account centuries-old cooperation between Italy and Russia."
It is believed that Salvador Dali made the subconscious enter the world of painting. However, there was another "dream catcher" long before him: Giorgio de Chirico, whose name is now not so well known to the general public and Russian art connoisseurs, was the first artists who turned to metaphysics. Dali got all the glory, but de Chirico figures among art critics under the label "forerunner of surrealism". But perhaps, without him there would not have been Magritte and Dali, whom we know, as well as the late Malevich: they all recognized the enormous influence of de Chirico on their works. In modern times, several video games were inspired by the canvases of the artist: maybe, that is why his works look so urgent even today.
The artist, sculptor, graphic artist, poet, philosopher, critic - he laid the basis of surrealism at the beginning of the 20th century, opening the "road" to Dali, Picasso and Magritte in painting, and he was one of the first who started to play by the new rules of postmodernism at the end of the 60's. Giorgio de Chirico is the name that remained in the background for a long time. Proudly presenting the exhibition "Giorgio de Chirico. Metaphysical insights" at the Tretyakov Gallery in Krymsky Val, XVII Open Arts Festival Chereshnevy Les enlightens this titan of the twentieth century to the Russian public once again.
XVII Open Arts Festival has prepared many interesting events this year: the full program can be viewed here.